Humane - a McRoll in the REAL World story
by Mari217
Summary: Catherine helping Kaitlyn with a project shows how the young girl's soft heart helps those in need and leads to a sweet conversation between Steve and Catherine.


_Sammy & Ilna - thank you for the input on this one. And for being the best, most amazing people ever. Love you both!_

 _REALMcRollers - Thanks you as always for the support and love. Kaitlyn is so dear to my heart with her soft spot for animals, I am always happy to write he_ r.

* * *

 **Humane**

Catherine and Jacob entered to find Kaitlyn and Grace in the Allens' living room surrounded by an array of items neatly packed into boxes.

"Looks like you're all ready to go," Catherine said as she received a greeting hug from each girl.

"Awesome!" Jacob did a little dance while holding a small blanket he'd lifted from the sofa. "What about this one?"

"That's for Midnight," Grace explained while looking affectionately at the cat who was currently sunning himself on the windowsill "I made one for him because he kinda inspired the whole project."

Grace grinned. "Kaitlyn's got enough toy and blanket donations for all the animals at the shelter and a box for the ones in foster care."

"That's amazing. What a great job." Catherine gave the smiling girl another hug. "Jacob, why don't you tell Kaitlyn and Grace about the cat book we read today?"

"Oh, yeah, it was cool!" He hopped from one foot to the other. "It was called _The Fire Cat_ and it was about this cat named Pickles and he gets adopted by all the firefighters and he's got these big paws. Anyway, he learns to be a great fire cat even though most firehouses have dogs as pets."

"That sounds great." His sister nodded and picked up a box. "Since you and Aunt Catherine got home in time, do you wanna come to drop off the donations?"

"Oh, can I?" His head whipped around and he called towards the kitchen, "Moooooom!"

Jenna appeared with a grin. "Hi, Catherine. And yes, Jacob, you can come." She accepted a hug from her youngest and greeted Catherine. "Is Angie with your folks?"

"Angie is having lunch with her daddy and grandpa at the O-Club," she explained. "Dad gave a lecture and Steve and Angie met him afterwards."

"Ahh, a little 'show my beautiful granddaughter to my colleagues' time for Joseph?" She chuckled.

Catherine nodded. "Absolutely, because they could have eaten anywhere. Not that Steve is any less transparent. He knows a lot of people at Pearl he's sure are just dying to meet her."

"That's adorable, but you never heard that word from me," Jenna said with a wink. Turning to the kids, she said, "Are we ready?"

"Yeah!" "Yes!" they chorused and Grace lifted a box while Catherine did the same.

"Aunt Catherine, can you come?" Jacob asked.

She nodded. "I'd love to. Uncle Steve ran Cammie after I left to pick you up so I don't have to be home to feed her for two hours. Besides, she'll be happy to hear about all these great things being donated." She stepped back and let the kids, now each holding a box, go ahead.

/

 _ **Animal Shelter**_

At the shelter, Kaitlyn and her little family entourage were met by Gwendolyn, the shelter manager and Kaipo, the volunteer coordinator. They happily accepted the boxes of donations and asked if their visitors would like a tour.

Ten minutes later, Kaitlyn said, "I hope all the animals like the stuff we brought."

Gwendolyn smiled warmly. "I know they will. It's a comfort for them to have a toy and blanket. Our volunteers wash so many blankets that they wear out, so these nice new ones are a big help."

Two of the 'mascot' cats in the lobby belonged to Gwendolyn. Kaitlyn petted one named Oreo who purred loudly while Catherine gently lifted cuddled a huge orange cat.

"Marmalade likes you, Lieutenant," Kaipo said with a nod. "He's an excellent judge of character."

"Everybody likes Aunt Catherine," Jacob supplied as he gently petted the cat in her arms.

Just as she set the animal back on his feet and thanked him, Jacob pointed to a sign in the shelter's lobby area that read,

 _One cat and her kittens can produce 420,000 offspring in a mere seven years. That's a lot of feral cats and kittens left to fend for themselves on the island. Many are abandoned. Please spay and neuter. Ask about our low cost programs for rescue pets!_

"What's a fer-al cat?"

Kaipo answered, "That's an excellent question, Jacob. A feral animal is an animal living in the wild but it was once a pet or comes from an animal family that used to live with people."

"How do they get fer … feral?"

Kaitlyn looked sad when she explained, "Sometimes people abandon their pets and sometimes strays have babies …" She turned her eyes to the shelter staffers. "Is that right?"

"That's exactly right." Gwendolyn nodded. "You're a very humane young person. Good job, supporting her, mom."

"Thank you," Kaitlyn said with a smile as Jenna looked on proudly and noted, "Kaitlyn inspires us all to think more about animals and the environment."

Gwendolyn nodded. "That's what we love to hear. You know, we have a lot of feral cat colonies on the island. One of our jobs is to encourage people to spay and neuter every pet so they don't have a lot of babies and add to the homeless animal population. You telling your friends and classmates about adopting a rescue pet and making sure their pets are neutered is a big help. Those Help the Homeless Pets booklets you're taking back to school and the Boys and Girls Club are a step in the right direction." She indicated Kaipo. "We appreciate your help, and so do the animals."

Kaitlyn brightened and thanked them just as Jacob added, "That's a lot of cats with no families. I'm really happy you saved Midnight," he told his sister sincerely. "You know what? My sister likes animals so much she's a vegetarian. She doesn't even eat hamburgers any more."

Kaipo laughed and offered the young girl a high five. "Hey, so am I. And Gwen is a pescatarian." At Jacob's look, he added, "That means she eats fish but no meat or poultry." He looked at Catherine and Jenna. "There's an awesome veggie restaurant on King Street."

Kaitlyn's eyes lit up. "Is it Simple Joy? I eat there with our Aunt Elizabeth sometimes!"

Catherine smiled at Grace. Both knew Elizabeth enjoyed helping Kaitlyn explore new options and be confident in her decisions.

"Maybe we'll see you and your auntie there, then," Kaipo told her and she nodded.

After another minute of chatting, the group made their way to the exit, passing a young family who was entering. When a boy about Joan's age announced, "We're getting a doggie today!" no one could hold back their smile.

* * *

Catherine entered to find Steve on the sofa, the TV on softly as Angie dozed on his chest and Cammie padded over to greet her.

Bending to hug the dog after slipping off her shoes, she waiting until Cammie finished sniffing her legs for a bit before moving to kiss Steve and the sleeping baby.

He patted the sofa. "Sit, tell me how it went."

"I'm gonna shower first. I'm covered with dog and cat fur, right, Cammie?" she said as she headed for the stairs. "I'll be right back."

When Catherine returned and joined him on the sofa, Steve said, "Kaitlyn didn't bring home any new friends for Midnight, did she?" as he grinned and shifted to see her face better without disturbing the still sleeping Angie. "Excellent willpower."

"She was awesome. The shelter staff was impressed with her organizing the donations. They gave us a tour and Kaitlyn got pamphlets on helping to control the homeless pet population to pass out."

"Hard to believe she was so afraid of Cammie, huh?" he marvelled.

"She petted a few of the dogs, too. No hesitation."

"I'm happy she's got the kitten. Another milestone for her. We may have a vet there someday."

Catherine gently took the wakening baby and snuggled her against her chest. "Good cat nap, sweetie?" she murmured as Cammie came up and placed her head on Catherine's knee to see her littlest human.

"I'm glad she's got Cammie," Steve observed as Angie came slowly more awake and reached a little hand to touch the dog's neck. "You always seemed so happy when you'd talk about Salty. I want that for her."

"They're besties already, right, pretty girl?" She scratched behind Cammie's ear and looked at Steve. "I loved having a dog. And on top of everything else, Salty was … grounding. Another feeling of _home_ that came with us wherever we went."

"You know we never had pets, and I never pictured myself with one before Cammie." He smiled when the dog's head lifted at her name. "But I can't imagine us without her." He slid an arm around Catherine's shoulder and kissed her temple. "That was all you, too."

She grinned. "Cammie fell for you in two minutes."

"And you insisted she come stay with us for 'a few days'. I was sold when you looked so happy at the thought but once I took her to the PetCo that day …"

"She was ours," she confirmed.

Steve watched as the large dog slipped easily under Catherine's legs which were propped on the coffee table to lie down. He looked at his daughter as she said, "Eee ahhh eee," and grabbed a fistful of of her mother's hair. With a widening smile he shared with his wife he said, "All of ours."

#End thanks for reading.

* * *

The book Jacob referred to was: _The Fire Cat_ by Esther Averill.

* * *

 _Find all our stories (in chronological order!) on our website:_ _ **marirealmcroll dot wixsite dot com backslash real-mcroll**_

 _Or in the McRoll in the REAL World community here on fanfiction dot net_ _ **Find us on Tumblr: mcrollintherealworld dot tumblr dot com**_

 _You can join our mailing list by_ _ **emailing us realmcroll at yahoo dot com**_ _with: Add me, please! in the subject line. Or just drop us a line to say hi! We love hearing from our readers._

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